Celebrating 19 Years of Valuing Air, Water and Soil with a Milestone Reduction

Just in time for The Climate Trust’s 19-year-Anniversary on June 26,2016, we are celebrating 3 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions reduced—an incredible milestone and equivalent to eliminating the emissions from over 630,000 cars for one year!

Of these 3 million tons, an impressive 2.8 million have already been retired. The most recent retirement was from the TMF Threemile Canyon Farm’s Dairy Digester project in Boardman, Oregon; the largest dairy in the state. This digester system was designed to divert manure that is ultimately composted or sent to an anaerobic lagoon system. In addition to carbon revenues, the project will generate significant cost savings by producing bedding for dairy cattle and eliminating diesel fuel use associated with hauling manure materials to the field for composting.

Over 107,000 tons have been retired from this project by The Climate Trust—the equivalent of nearly 16,000 homes’ electricity use for one year.

TMF’s sustainability initiatives and practices include: partnering with The Nature Conservancy to conserve 23,000 acres of grasslands on the farm; implementing a water efficient irrigation system, and donating $1.25 million to The Freshwater Trust to help restore habitat by enhancing stream flows into the Columbia River and its tributaries; and leasing ground to the developers of a 9.9 MW wind farm.

“The digester project contributes substantially to the farm’s renewable energy goals and provides additional revenue streams—proving to be ecologically beneficial, as well as a sound investment,” said Marty Myers, General Manager for Threemile Canyon Farms. “It was a pleasure working with The Climate Trust to reach our joint goals, and create a new revenue stream that supports the vital work of dairy farms.”

In general, livestock digesters have the unique potential to rapidly scale-up climate solutions, and offer a host of beneficial revenue streams, from improving the economic and environmental performance of dairies, to clean energy, and organic fertilizer. The methane destruction benefits are significant as this greenhouse gas is 72 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20 year time period.

“The Climate Trust is proud to play a role in meeting our national climate goals, especially through projects with such a strong opportunity for impact,” said Sean Penrith, Executive Director for The Climate Trust. “Reducing 3 million tons is a significant accomplishment, but with $5.5 million dollars ready to deploy this year, and 5.5 million tons of emissions reductions already contracted, results of even greater significance are expected.”

In 1997, The Trust was founded as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to assist new fossil-fueled power plants in complying with the Oregon Carbon Dioxide Standard; the nation’s first legislation to curb emissions of carbon dioxide.

Building upon this legacy of innovation and leadership in the carbon market, The Trust now channels large volumes of financing into critical early-stage projects that will generate qualified offsets, and offer greater potential for impact. The Trust currently deploys funds in our preferred sectors—forestry, grassland conservation, and livestock digesters—and plans to incorporate additional sectors as our investment fund scales.

We are committed to staving off a disastrous rise in global temperatures, but we couldn’t deliver these results year-after-year without the close collaboration of our project development partners, and the dedicated support of corporations who voluntarily agree to offset their emissions. We are thankful to each and every one of you.